A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains or may contain material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the photocopy reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure in exactly the form it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention relates in general to a gaming device, and more particularly to a gaming device having an offer and acceptance selection bonus scheme with a terminator and a multi-functional anti-terminator.
Gaming devices, such as slot machines, having primary and secondary or bonus games or schemes are well known. One well known bonus game provides a player with a series of award offers consisting of credits or dollars. The player may either accept each award offer or reject each award offer; however, the player must accept the final award offer. If the player accepts an award offer, the player keeps the award offered. If the player rejects the award offer, the gaming device provides another award offer to the player except if the award offer is the final award offer. The award offers are randomly determined from a series of award offers of differing values.
Other known gaming devices, such as the gaming device disclosed in European Patent No. EP 09454837A2 utilize terminators. In the gaming device disclosed therein, the gaming device provides a plurality of selections in a bonus game. The selections include masked or hidden awards and terminators. The player receives an award for each selection picked by the player that is not a terminator. The player continues to pick selections until the player obtains a terminator. The terminator ends the bonus game and the player receives the total of all the awards they obtained during the bonus game.
Other known gaming devices, such as the gaming device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,190,255 B1 utilize an anti-terminator. In the gaming device disclosed therein, upon a specific symbol combination in the basic mode, the gaming device generates an anti-terminator which is subsequently exercisable in a bonus game of the gaming device. Until the gaming device activates the bonus mode, the player may continue obtaining anti-terminators in the basic mode. In the bonus mode, a player may use an anti-terminator to override an otherwise undesired outcome of the bonus game. For example, if in the bonus mode the player obtained an outcome that would end the bonus mode, an anti-terminator, if available, may be used to override the end bonus mode outcome and thereby continue play of the bonus mode.
While this type of gaming device has achieved significant popularity in the gaming industry, after playing the game repeatedly, players may lose interest in the game. Furthermore, gaming devices having offer and acceptance games have not included a plurality of selections including terminators and anti-terminators in a bonus scheme. Accordingly, there is a need for a new gaming device having an offer and acceptance selection bonus scheme with a terminator and an anti-terminator.
The present invention provides a gaming device having an improved offer and acceptance bonus scheme. In one embodiment of the present invention, the gaming device provides a player a plurality of opportunities to pick from a plurality of selections. Each selection has an offer or symbol randomly associated with it. The offers may be randomly determined or arranged prior to or during the selection process from a pool of offers. The player picks one of the selections and the gaming device reveals the offer or symbol associated with that selection. If the player accepts the revealed offer, the player obtains the revealed offer and the bonus game ends. If the player does not accept the revealed offer, and the offer is not the final offer, the player may make another selection from the plurality of selections. If the player has not accepted any of the offers prior to the last possible offer, the gaming device provides the player with the last offer, which the player cannot reject.
A terminator or termination symbol is associated with at least one selection and an anti-terminator or anti-termination symbol is associated with at least one selection. If the player picks a selection that has a termination symbol associated with it, the bonus scheme ends. If a player obtains the termination symbol, the game will provide no award, provide the player the last rejected award, provide the player a consolation award or select another award to provide the player. If the player picks a selection that has an anti-termination symbol associated with it, the player retains the anti-termination symbol and picks another selection. If the player subsequently picks a selection that has a termination symbol associated with it, the retained anti-termination symbol nullifies the bonus scheme ending effect of the termination symbol. It should be appreciated that alternative embodiments can include multiple termination symbols, multiple anti-termination symbols and combinations thereof.
It is therefore an advantage of the present invention to provide a gaming device having an offer and acceptance selection bonus scheme with a terminator and an anti-terminator.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed disclosure, taken in conjunction with the accompanying sheets of drawings, wherein like numerals refer to like parts, elements, components, steps and processes.